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  • Essay / Sleeping sickness - 1398

    Imagine that you have just returned from a safari in Africa. You quickly develop a fever, swollen lymph nodes, and over time you begin to have trouble sleeping. Eventually, you can no longer stay awake during the day or sleep at night, you begin to lose coordination, and, if left untreated, you could slip into a coma and die within six months. In Africa, you contracted African trypanosomiasis, better known as sleeping sickness. You contracted this disease from one of the smallest animals you encountered on your safari, the tsetse fly. The tsetse fly carries a parasite called Trypanosoma brucei which causes sleeping sickness. The tsetse fly helped spread this disease throughout sub-Saharan Africa, causing epidemics that have ravaged populations since the 14th century. Symptoms of the disease begin to appear shortly after the bite. A canker forms around the place where the person was bitten and the parasite soon enters the lymphatic system. The immune response that it triggers in the immune system causes swelling of the lymph nodes, particularly in the neck. Severe swelling of the lymph nodes on the dorsum of the neck is known as Winterbottom's sign and is a telltale sign of sleeping sickness. The parasite quickly makes its way into the bloodstream after invading the lymphatic system. From the bloodstream, the parasite is free to travel, damage any organ and cause damage throughout the body. The parasite targets smooth and skeletal muscle and is often fatal due to the damage it causes to the heart muscle. The disease begins to wreak havoc on the nervous system when the parasite enters the brain, which constitutes stage II trypanosomiasis. The person's sleep cycles are disrupted, and fatigue, insomnia and confusion... middle of paper ...... escape detection by the immune system. Although it rarely reaches the United States, sleeping sickness has a devastating effect in parts of Africa and is just one of many diseases that threaten Africans. Hopefully, in the near future, scientists will be able to learn more about this disease and, most importantly, how to eradicate it completely.Works Cited1. http://emedicine.medscape.com/article/228613-overview2. http://pathmicro.med.sc.edu/lecture/trypanosomiasis.htm3. http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs259/en/4. http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/detail?vid=4&hid=122&sid=3412f781-1a76-4535-a9e0-63b2423c1626%40sessionmgr15&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#db=cmedm&AN=21911566 5. http://web .ebscohost.com/ehost/detail?vid=4&hid=17&sid=3412f781-1a76-4535-a9e0-63b2423c1626%40sessionmgr15&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#db=cmedm&AN=21376044